After hosing early buyers of the Nintendo 3DS with a massive price cut announced last week, Nintendo says it's concerned early adopters will hold off buying its Wii U console hoping for a similar slashing.

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president, confirmed in a recent investors conference call that the company is concerned that the 3DS price cut just a few months into the system's launch could make potential early Wii U adopters hold out in the hopes of something similar, according to ComputerAndVideogames.com. The price and a specific release date for the Wii U will be revealed sometime next year.

"With regard to the influence on the Wii U, what we have to take most seriously is that the price markdown could damage the trust of the consumers who bought the Nintendo 3DS just after the launch," he said. "I feel greatly accountable for it."

Um. No kidding. A lot of early adopters just accept that getting any piece of technology soon after it's released can be risky. It can be buggy. It could have defects. And you are certainly paying top dollar. Still, reducing the price of the 3DS from $250 to $170 about four months after launch is a pretty bitter pill to swallow for even the most jaded early adopters. Still, if it helps, Iwata has officially apologized for the uncharacteristically early price drop, and Nintendo is offering free 20 downloadable games as a way to ease the pain.

About Stanley A. Miller II

Stan Miller is a Milwaukee native. He started his career at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shortly after graduating from Northwestern University in 1997 -- a professional journey that began on the night copy desk and transitioned over the years to covering personal technology, general assignment city news, real estate, business news and general features as well as technology. Despite those evolving roles, Stan has always held firm to his passion (and near-obsession) with technology and how it is changing our culture and society. Stan is also the defacto geek culture writer, with a keen interest in and appreciation of gaming, comics, fantasy art and science fiction. He has stood in many lines for midnight sales of the latest games and consumer electronics despite the fact he played with them months or years beforehand at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Stan is much more than a game-boy, however and is always evangelizing the good, the bad and the ugly of technology, whether that is through public speaking venues or teaching classes at local institutions of higher education. When he is not teching around, he is most likely either playing fetch with his dog, Sophie, or riding Wisconsin's beautiful trails on his roadbike.